Before the Open (Jul 23)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed up across the board. Hong Kong rallied 2.3%, China 2% and Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan better than 1%. Europe is currently mostly up. Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic are leading the way. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
The market keeps chugging along. After rallying 8 straight days, it dropped and has now closed up another 4 straight days. That’s 12 out of 13 up days, and 16 of 19. Heck of a run. It’s at times like these you can throw TA out the window. Trendlines aren’t very predictive, and overbought can stay overbought for a long time.
Don’t over-analyze. Most of the time simple breadth indicators are pretty good at picking off tops and bottoms and generally telling us what to expect and whether we should be aggressive or passive. But from time to time the market gets in a mode where it wants to do something, and it’s best not to stand in its way. Let the talking heads talk and debate and pound their chests when one of their predictions comes true. We should keep playing set ups and know the party won’t continue forever.
Here are stock-specific headline stories from barchart.com…
There are 11 of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings this morning. Above-consensus reports include Air Products (APD +0.92%) ($1.36 vs $1.385), Du Pont (DD +0.05%) (1.28 vs 1.27), Travelers (TRV +0.91%) (2.13 vs 1.59), United Technologies (UTX -0.36%) (1.70 vs 1.58), Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL -0.57%) (1.05 vs 1.035), Forest Labs (FRX -0.02%) (0.28 vs 0.08), and Lockheed Martin (LMT +0.09%) (2.64 vs 2.20). Below-consensus reports include Altria (MO -0.73%) (0.62 vs 0.629), Regions Financial (RF +1.86%) (0.20 vs 0.21), Waters Corp (WAT +0.64%) (1.08 vs 1.21), and Pentair (PNR -0.51%) (0.85 vs 0.90).
Texas Instruments (TXN +0.43%) rallied 2.6% in after-hours trading after reporting Q2 EPS with items of 58 cents, well above the consensus of 41 cents.
CapitalSource (CSE +1.44%) rallied 12% in after-hours trading after the announcement that PacWest (PACW +0.50%) will buy the company for $2.3 billion. PacWest shares rallied slightly by 0.3% following the announcement.
Netflix (NFLX -0.99%) fell 4% in after-hours trading on disappointing earnings news.
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
today’s upgrades/downgrades

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Jul 23)”

  2. The indications are the same: hold some index hedges and pick a few plays you know well. They are making 2-3% and exceed the risk. I have some puts which are my investment in the impossible spread of the multiple the CAPE.
    The news today is the Fed has allowed the money center banks to buy and operate “related” businesses such as utilities -gas,sewer,water,phones etc- as necessary. The dye is cast: exploitation by the banks will be tolerated by the Fed, the question is – will it weaken the financial system? yes?

  3. Thanks Neal, you’ll make us famous, in your own mind, at least. I would bet most of us do as well as you are. Relax. Where is your putative book on trading. Can not seem to find it.

  4. just love it when the bulls get fat and complacent
    follow the market D and A ,and that is the instos wont let the market drop til after fantasy earnings are over end this week and after apple /yahoo announce tonite
    nas 100 looks weak and may have toped if cant get over 3088
    europe is being held basicly stationary as is oz
    doesnt matter to me –my fun is the up/down intra day casino
    but that cant be traded unless you have the rite indicators and can move faster than superman

  5. markets have had a few narrow ranges and a wide range day is due,
    but maybe only a nite trader can pick that up
    thats what happens after doji’s
    form reading comes with experiance and a marsian sence of humour

  6. a million is peanuts on 0.50 % margin
    wake up to the world of margin trading
    it has its ricks,but not if u follow the rules
    mr atlas said give me a long enough stick and i can move the world
    u cant do that owning mother stocks on no margin

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